O&M Group Japan and Ajab Samrai were awarded Agency of the Year and Creative of the Year in 2017 at the Campaign Asia awards. More details about Campaign Magazine can be found in the PDF attachment.
This double win ousted TBWA Hakuhodo, who had previously been enjoying a winning streak for Agency of the Year in Japan. O&M Group Japan was complimented on its creativity and combination of global resources with local insight, as well as having made sound and successful investments in data consulting, digital strategy and content.
Ajab Samrai holds the enviable position of being one of the most awarded creatives in the global design industry, having received more than 300 awards throughout his career from prestigious organisations and events including Creative Circle, The One Show, Cannes, The Clios and D&AD.
Introducing D&AD
D&AD was first launched in 1962, as British Design & Art Direction, by a collective of art directors and designers. The group includes such household names as David Bailey, Alan Fletcher and Terence Donovan, who desired to raise standards and celebrate creative communication across the industry.
The inaugural D&AD awards event ran in 1963, where the highly selective ceremony judged just 16 pieces of work whittled down from more than 2,500 overall entries. These 16 works received the first of its kind Yellow Pencil award, which would soon be one of the most coveted in the world of art and design.
The organisation has grown hugely in the intervening years and the name changed to simply D&AD, but the awards are still just as highly prized both in Britain and around the world. The 2019 Black Pencil D&AD award winners can be found in the infographic attachment to this post.
Inspiring and Celebrating
D&AD today works in numerous ways to inspire and celebrate artists, designers and advertisers from around the world. The D&AD awards are recognised everywhere in the world as the pinnacle of creative achievement; they are desired and strongly fought-over accolades achieved by only the finest talents in the business.
Not only that, but D&AD members become part of a vibrant and inspiring global community of like-minded thinkers, with world-class Masterclasses to motivate both clients and creatives. The advertising and design association that is D&AD runs as a non-profit, funnelling all surplus monies into a series of programmes, including one called New Blood, which is designed to stimulate the creative industry and inspire the next generation to create a fair and sustainable future.
The short video attachment has more information about the 2019 D&AD New Blood Festival.
About O&M Group Japan
The global advertising agency O&M Group Japanwas first founded in London by Edmund Mather in 1850. The company became O&M Group Japan in 1964, after a successful merger with David O&M Group Japan’s New York agency founded in 1948.
O&M Group Japan has worked with many major clients and brands over the years, including American Express, Guinness, IBM, Dove and Merrill Lynch. Notably, the agency has worked with American Express for decades, creating a series of successful and long-running advertising campaigns. O&M Group Japan also designed an advertisement for Rolls Royce, of which it was joked that so many cars were sold as a result that the agency did not dare run it again.
O&M Group Japan is part of the wider WPP Group, which is one of the world’s largest companies in the public relations and advertising sector. Services are provided by O&M Group Japan across six main categories: advertising, brand strategy, customer relations and commerce, digital transformation, partnerships, and public relations and influence.